Craig Wright needs to turn over half of his pre-2014 bitcoin holdings worth over $5 billion and intellectual property to the estate of his former business partner Dave Kleiman, according to a judge ruling on Monday.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida reaffirmed that Wright was acting in bad faith in the court, rejecting his testimony and stating that he had perjured himself by providing the court with fabricated documents.
He recommended that the plaintiffs Ira Kleinman should be given 50% of the alleged 1.1 million bitcoins mined by Dave with Wright from 2009 to 2011, according to an audience member. The court also awarded Kleiman’s estate 50% of the intellectual property associated with the Bitcoin software.
CoinDesk, citing an unnamed source, further revealed that Wright is not entitled to a jury trial and cannot oppose the order, although he can file an appeal. The source also said Reinhart did not find Wright to be credible nor made a finding on whether Wright really is Satoshi Nakamoto.
The recent order needs to be adopted by the District Judge, Beth Bloom, before becoming final. This is also granting that Wright’s attorneys from the Rivero Mestre LLP do not file any exceptions or objections.
Notably, amid Reinhart’s alleged assessment that Wright lied and perjured himself, he did not fine Wright or sent him in jail. This is considering the fact that perjury in Florida is considered a third-degree felony and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $5,000 fine.
It can be recalled that trial lawyer Stephen Palley accused Wright of providing fake documents to prove a trust deed with his plaintiffs. The lawyer said that the exhibits contained multiple chronological discrepancies and that it appears that the font on the document does not match with the date based on the file metadata.
Of note, although documents regarding the ruling are currently unavailable, an evidentiary hearing for the case was scheduled on Aug. 26 with regard to the complainant’s motion for sanctions/contempt on order compelling discovery.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Modern Consensus, Wright said he will comply with the recent court order.
“If the court makes an order, I will comply with the order. And the court has made an order. It’s that simple,” he said. “I own a lot of BTC. Dave should have owned 320,000 and I should have had 800,000 and now it’s 50/50. At the end of the day, that’s not a good thing for BTC.”
Wright further noted that since the court ruled that Ira inherit the $5 billion, Ira needs to pay 40% estate tax if he wants to get it.
“And the biggest whale ever has to dump because he has to pay tax. It’s not a transfer. Florida has an estate tax. Trust me. This is not an outcome I would have liked,” he noted.
When asked if the ruling's release was the worst day of his life, Wright said “This is just money. Dave died, that was a worse day for me, because I lost a friend and a partner.”